The Hepburns: Something Worth Stealing

Anthony Rochester: Music for Librarians

The Cat Box Quartet: Running Uphill

Cessna: Terminus

The Hepburns: The Last Thing I Saw Before I…

The Hepburns: Deciphering Linear A

Replicant: Kuuki No Soko

Gypsophile vs. Shop: Deux musiciens en crise

The Double Life of Testbild!

18fps: The Soft Rains of Delta Cephei

18fps: The Politics of Disappearance

Nice System: Impractical Guide to the Opposite Sex

Gypsophile: De loin, les choses

those silly catalogue cards from the 3" era

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The third installment of the drifter trilogy found inspiration in the visual world of Wong Kar-wai and the Ackbar Abbas book from which its title was appropriated, both of which deal with (visually) noisy urban landscapes in which things become invisible. It’s the crumpled litter on the sidewalk which no one sees, but which everyone instinctually steps over.

Aside from the usual cinematic vibes, the songs are held together by overlapping themes of "location and visibility: the hidden and the lost, things no longer here, and things that are elsewhere."

While the majority of RK’s full size CDs use matte varnishes, the use of a glossy coating on the digipak seemed to make sense here.

How does one make not seeing visually compelling? I have to confess that I find most of this package’s design pretty boring.

The one place where the design really works for me is on the disc itself. What more appropriate use of an otherwise gimmicky, partly transparent disc? I love the way the white dots that form the letters “DISAPPEARANCE” interact with the metallic and clear portions of the CD.

The white ring in the upper right corner is that mark that appears a few seconds before the end of a film reel, cueing the projectionist to change reels. Everyone sees it, and no one sees it.

You Are Here: It’s a map of the package (printed parts: obi, digipak, and disc) and it’s a design credit: Jiri Novak contributed the photo in the panel indicated; the rest was done by you know who.